CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

Defense of the Ancients (commonly known as DotA) is a real-time online or LAN strategy computer game composing of two to ten or twelve players where you can choose from over ninety unique characters you can play on. It requires focus, strategy, quick hands and quick thinking when you are in difficult situations. The objective of the scenario is to destroy the opponents' "Ancient". The two teams' ancients are heavily guarded structures at opposing corners of the map. The game is popular in many parts of the world; in the Philippines and Thailand. It is also one of the most well-known computer games being played in Sweden and other Northern European countries. By these reasons, the popularity of this game has increased over time not only with these countries being mentioned but it has been getting more popular all over the world. As DotA arises, many issues also arise. It may be about on relationships, peers, foes, and most especially, education. Many critics worldwide are arguing about the real effects of playing DotA considering that many people especially teenagers are getting addicted on this computer game. They said, this is a mind numbing entertainment for everyone and produces a socially isolated people and promotes violent behaviors. Some of these criticisms may or may not be true.
In the Philippines, DotA is being played not only by teenager but also by the kids that made this as a big concern for parents. At their young age they are more prone on getting addicted on playing this game and might get out of focus to their studies and would lost their interests in playing physical and traditional games like “tumbang preso”, “luksong baka”, “patintero”, and many more. There are many students and even some young professionals that are addicted to DotA.
When time spent on the computer, playing DotA games it reaches a point that it harms a child’s or adult’s family and social relationships, or disrupts school or work life. Like other addictions, DotA game has replaced friends and family as the source of a person, emotional life.
DEFINITION OF TERMS

Defense of the Ancients (DotA) - is a multiplayer online battle arena mod for the video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, based on the "Aeon of Strife" map for StarCraft.
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos - is a high fantasy real time strategy video game released by Blizzard Entertainment on July 3, 2002 (US).
StarCraft - is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment and released for Microsoft Windows on March 31, 1998.
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (TFT) - is a real-time strategy computer game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the official expansion pack to Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, requiring Reign of Chaos to play. Released in stores worldwide in multiple languages beginning on July 1, 2003, it includes new units for each race, two new auxiliary races, four campaigns, five neutral heroes (an additional neutral hero was added April 2004 and two more were added in August 2004), the ability to build a shop and various other improvements such as the ability to queue upgrades.
League of Legends (LoL) - is a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, inspired by the mod Defense of the Ancients for the video game Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. It is a free-to-play game, supported by micro-transactions. It was first announced on October 7, 2008, and released on October 27, 2009. League of Legends was generally well received at release, and has grown in popularity in the years since. According to a 2012 Forbes article, League of Legends is the most played PC game in the world in terms of the number of hours played.
Disrupts - To interrupt or impede the progress, movement, or procedure.
Modded - A mod or modification is the alteration of the program code of a video game in order to make it operate in a manner different to its original version.
Congregate - To bring or come together in a group, crowd, or assembly.
Infrequently - Not occurring regularly; occasional or rare.
Exclude - To prevent from being included, considered, or accepted; reject.
Use Map Setting (UMS) - Is a selectable game type in Starcraft and Starcraft II in which the game will follow the scripted scenario the map was created with.
Aeon of Strife (AoS) - A massive civil war amongst the protos, even earning the status of the “bloodiest, most violent civil war ever recorded in galactic history” in Starcraft.
Creeps - are a type of unit within DotA that heroes can interact with, but do not have direct control over by default (see Chen, Enchantress and Helm of the Dominator). There are two types of creeps: lane creeps and neutral creeps. Both types of creeps can be killed by players for gold and experience.
Heroes - are the essential element of DotA, as the course of the game is dependent on their intervention. Players are split into two teams of 5, and can select a Hero from a selection panel. Heroes all have different play styles that stem from unique Skills and combinations of Attributes.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

To understand the history of DotA, one must begin from Starcraft. In the early days of Starcraft, there was a UMS (Use Map Settings) map called Aeon of Strife (AoS) made by a modder called Aeon64 that featured a cooperative game with four heroes facing off against endless waves of computer-controlled creeps in four lanes. The players would have endless computer-controlled creeps on their side as well, except these were weaker than the enemy creeps.
The familiar game mechanic of the player who last-hit an enemy unit being rewarded with money can be found in this map. The game would end once key buildings on either side were destroyed or with the deaths of all four player-controlled heroes. A second version was made so that four players faced off against each other in a 2v2 fashion with endless creeps on both teams.
Once the Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos (ROC) was released on July 3, 2002, Aeon of Strife was ported over to ROC where free of the limitations of the Starcraft map editor, and a much more interesting game could be made. Players could gain experience alongside money, gain levels, learn more powerful abilities and buy equipment. Many of the game mechanics in modern DotA can be found in maps from this period.
The first version of Defense of the Ancients was released in 2003 by a mapmaker under the alias of Eul who based the map on a previous StarCraft scenario known as "Aeon of Strife". After the release of Warcraft's expansion The Frozen Throne, which added new features to the World Editor, Eul did not update the scenario. Other mapmakers produced spinoffs that added new heroes, items, and features.
When Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne (TFT) came out on July 1st, 2003, Eul made a version called DotA 2: Thirst for Gamma in TFT, but it wasn't successful in replacing the original DotA that had been ported into TFT. Eul then disappeared, but not before making his code open-source. 2
At this time, many people modded the TFT version of DotA. These derivatives of DotA started becoming popular on Battle.net. During this time, DotA wasn't called DotA Allstars, but instead the EX series. This was the version of DotA optimized by a modder off of the ROC version. Other well-known series were the "DotA DX Series", "DotA Unforgiven" and "DotA Outland". 2
Among the DotA variants created in the wake of Eul's map, there was DotA Allstars, developed by modder Steve Feak (under the alias Guinsoo); this version would become today's dominant version of the map, simply known as Defense of the Ancients. Feak said when he began developing DotA Allstars, he had no idea how popular the game would eventually become; the emerging success of the game type inspired him to design a new title around what he considered an emerging game genre. Feak added a recipe system for items so that player's equipment would scale as they grew more powerful, as well as a powerful boss character called Roshan (named after his bowling ball) who required an entire team to defeat. 3
These ancient DotA maps led to DotA becoming one of the most popular maps on Battle.net and created very good conditions for DotA Allstars to flourish on its release. 2
Feak used a battle.net chat channel as a place for DotA players to congregate, but DotA Allstars had no official site for discussions and hosting. Subsequently, the leaders of the DotA Allstars clan, TDA, proposed that a dedicated web site be created to replace the various online alternatives that were infrequently updated or improperly maintained. TDA member Steve "Pendragon" Mescon created the former official community site, dota-allstars.com, on October 14, 2004.
Towards the end of his association with the map, Feak primarily worked on optimizing the map before handing over control to another developer after version 6.01. The new author, IceFrog, added new features, heroes, and fixes. Each release is accompanied by a change log. IceFrog was at one time highly reclusive, refusing to give interviews; the only evidence of his authorship was the map maker's email account on the official website and the name branded on the game's loading screen. IceFrog now interacts with players through a personal blog where he answers common questions players have about him and about the game. He has also posted information about upcoming map releases, including previews of new heroes and items.
Defense of the Ancients is maintained via official forums. Users can post ideas for new heroes or items, some of which are added to the map. Players have contributed icons and hero descriptions and created the artwork displayed while the map loads, and suggestions for changes to existing heroes or items are taken seriously; IceFrog once changed a new hero less than two weeks after the new version of the map was released. Versions of the scenario where enemy heroes are controlled by artificial intelligences have also been released. Mescon continued to maintain dota-allstars.com, which by the end of IceFrog's affiliation in May 2009 had over 1,500,000 registered users and had received over one million unique visitors every month. Due to their separation, IceFrog announced that he would be further developing a new official site, playdota.com, while continuing game development; Mescon closed dota-allstars on July 22, 2010, citing dropping statistics and his new passion for League of Legends as the reason for its end.
Because Warcraft III custom games have none of the features designed to improve game quality (matchmaking players based on connection speed, etc.), various programs are used to maintain Defense of the Ancients. External tools ping player's locations, and games can be named to exclude geographic regions. Clans and committees such as TDA maintain their own official list of rules and regulations, and players can be kicked from matches by being placed on "ban lists".

PURPOSE

Since its release, Allstars has become a feature at several worldwide tournaments, including Blizzard Entertainment’s BlizzCon and Asian World Cyber Games, as well as the Cyberathlete Amateur and CyberEvolution Leagues; Gamasutra was declared that DotA was perhaps the most popular “free, non-supported game mod in the world”. The map has gone on to influence other maps and games, including LOL (league of Legends), HON (Heroes of New Earth), and Demigod.
Computer Games have now been with us for over 30 years. The Atari 2600 is nearly 25 years old. Civilization is now nearly 10 years old. Yet, many people fail to recognize these complex achievements as more than fads or child’s play. Ask most people what they think about video games many will respond that they’re a waste of time.
Want to know how students get addicted playing computer games?
The advent of computer information and technology to the common people greatly revolutionized our lives. The World Wide Web heralded ease of access to information exchange and communications. Computer games flourished and became available to the masses. Computer shops sprung out like mushrooms catering games and web access to people who do not have the financial means to own a computer – their clientele comprised mainly of students. At first students do research for their studies and later on with the aid of their more computer-savy classmates, they begin to explore the realm of computer games. Here they found DOTA.
One of the popular games is called “DOTA” also known as Defense of the Ancients it’s a kind of games that each team needs to destroy the opponents’ Ancients, and its heavily guarded structures at opposing corners of the map… the players use powerful units known as heroes, and are assisted by allied heroes and AI-controlled fighters. Since its original release, DotA has become a feature at several worldwide tournaments, including Blizzard Entertainment’s BlizzCon and the Asian World Cyber Games, as well as the Cyberathlete Amateur and Cyber Evolution Leagues; in a 2008 article of video games industry website Gamasutra, the articles author claimed that “DOTA” is likely the most popular and most-discussed free, non-supported game mode in the world.
DotA is addictive because it looks simple but is not. Behind the cutesy heroes and busty heroines, there's a complex level of management that you need to understand to win the game. Teamwork also factors in, and timing, and a general sense of the area around you. The large amount of choice in the heroes and items you can choose mean that the repetitive value of the game is increased, and that you won't always be seeing the same things.

STATEMENTS OF THE PROBLEM

1. How does DotA affect the lives of the people? 2. Can DotA be good to our lives? 3. Why DotA become popular? 4. Where DotA addiction first came from? 5. Why people love it, specially the teenagers?

--------------------------------------------
[ 2 ]. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Dota-933064.html/2012
[ 3 ]. http://wiki.gosugamers.net/dota2/History_of_DotA/2013
[ 4 ]. http://dota.wikia.com/wiki/Defense_of_the_Ancients/2013
[ 5 ]. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Warcraft-Iii-1053394.html/2012
[ 6 ]. http://www.playdota.com/forums/blog.php?u=90558224/2012
[ 7 ]. http://onlinegameupdates.blogspot.com/2009/02/developement.html/2009
[ 8 ]. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dota-Public-Community/252813268087714?sk=info/2011
[ 9 ]. http://www.studymode.com/essays/Reasons-Why-Students-Get-Addicted-In-922810.html/2012
[ 10 ]. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_dota_addictive/2012